Fibrosis is characterized by the excessive synthesis of an extracellular matrix composed of Type 1 collagen. It affects the liver, lungs, heart, intestines, kidneys, skin, joints and adventitia of blood vessels. Fibrosis has been shown to affect 45% of the population.
In my previous work, which is presented in co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 12/898,849, I showed that the interaction between the LARP6 protein and the 5′ stem loop in collagen α1(I) and collagen α2(I) mRNAs is important for the excessive expression of type 1 collagen in fibrosis. I also showed that the compound ML-7, which is shown below, interferes with collagen synthesis.
